Birth of an Assassin

by Rik Stone

• ISBN10: 1783010991
• ISBN13: 9781783010998
• Publish Date: 18 June 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Sea View Media
• Imprint: ebookpartnership.com
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 371
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

This review is also available on Cornerfolds.com!

Birth of an Assassin was a book a little outside of my comfort zone in more than one way: I've never read anything set in Russia and, as a combat vet, I attempt to avoid books about war. But I decided to give this one a try and I was not disappointed.

The main character, Jez, spends half the book on the run from the KGB and I'm sure you can imagine how that goes. Staying one step ahead of the game, Jez manages to stay alive while coping with loss too great to imagine. The character development is good - I sympathized with Jez and Anna... most of the time. There were a few times that Jez made decisions that made me cringe - things that seemed to be unnecessary, in my opinion. But this is war and war is a different place, I suppose. Especially when the rules are bent such as they are in this book. The main antagonist, Otto, was as despicable as he possibly could have been. I hated him almost from the start.

While it takes quite a while to gain momentum (about 200 pages), this book is a thrill ride once it does pick up. I just wish it hadn't taken so long. The biggest issue I had with Birth of an Assassin was its dialogue. I'm not sure why, but the dialogue is extremely choppy and sometimes very unnatural. I think it is best described as someone translating Russian to English, but maybe that was what the author meant it to be. I honestly checked a couple times to see if perhaps the author was, in fact, Russian. It seemed especially odd because the rest of the writing flowed perfectly. The ending was satisfying enough, though I do wish we'd learned what happened to Jez's sisters (but maybe that's coming in a sequel).

All in all, this book is a good read as long as you can overlook the dialogue and make it through the first half of rather slow intro. I'd definitely recommend Birth of an Assassin to any military or history buff!

[Nadz@Totally Addicted to Reading]

Birth of an Assassin tells the story of Jez Kornfield a fifteen year old Jewish boy who had aspirations of becoming a soldier in the Red Army. He had left home against his parents' wishes with the intention of making his dream a reality.

Jez is small in stature as such he was not taken seriously when he made it know that this was his intent. On his journey he met General Michael Petrovich who recruited for his own purposes. Jez quickly moved through the ranks after demonstrating to be a capable and intelligent soldier. Everything was going well for him, however, this was all about to change when he was placed in a position where he was forced to prove his loyalty. He proved that loyalty to his family was more important than that to the army.

Unbeknown to him his actions contributed to him being looked over for for further promotion by his benefactor General Petrovich. In the process, he earned himself enemies who sought to discredit him by framing him for murder and linking him to human trafficking. This led to him being hunted by the KGB.

This is a historical suspenseful thriller that takes readers into the world of human trafficking and one that is rife with corruption, within the higher echelons the army. It is an intense and fascinating read that pulled me in from the very first page. Birth of an Assassin is filled with many twists and turns and there were some unexpected events.

The characters were clever and brilliant which made the story that more enjoyable. I totally enjoyed every moment spent reading this book and I can’t wait to see what next Rik Stone has in store for his fans.
If you enjoy stories that portrays a world filled with love, jealousy, racism, betrayal and revenge then this book is for you.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy in exchange for a honest review.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

This may sound strange, but while reading Birth of an Assassin I was reminded of the tv show Scandal. There is one episode in particular, where we learn about Huck and why/how he became a professional killer. A short autobiography if you will, and perhaps on a longer scale, Birth of an Assassin reminded me of that. Although I was also reminded of Kerry Washington's character, Olivia Pope, a fixer and wearer of many hats. That is basically what Jez does for his Sisters, he covers up their wrongs, and like Bill Clinton trys to keep "I had sexual relations" under-wraps. I admit that that would be a little nasty as they are his sisters, but the general idea is there -- keep my sisters hidden.

Birth of an Assassin was a page turner, I became tense while reading, it gripped me in and would not let go. Besides an interesting plot, the characters were well developed too and could picture his sister's reactions to their new found reality and the strenuousness of the situation for Jez in a sense heartbreaking as he is torn between alliances. He loses either way, and just made me sad. Time spent reading Rik Stone's was not a loss of time but rather a loss into my imagination and unwilling to emerge.